CHAPTER IV
AT THE FOREST HOUSE
Hans worked hard all night and into the next morning, and then, feeling the need of food and finding none in overcrowded Jena, with an "Auf wiedersehen" to his comrades, he departed for the farmhouse.
Frau Schmelze stood in the doorway.
"Morning, Hans!" she called. "Come in, come in, here is coffee!"
Bustling about, she prepared him a meal in the living room.
On the sofa lay a man in Prussian uniform.
"He staggered in last night," she explained. "His hand was cut and bleeding. I bound it up for him and he fell asleep there, though, goodness knows, it was dangerous enough with the French tearing by every moment!" She poured out coffee. "Ach Himmel, Hans!" she cried, "but war is dreadful! All night the cannon and the screaming."
Then suddenly she turned on him, glancing at his tumbled hair and face stained and dirty.